Publications
The Continuum: Cistercian’s bi-annual magazine for family, friends and alumni of Cistercian
When The Continuum was first published as the newsletter for Cistercian alumni, the editors wanted to indicate by the title that continuity links the life of a student with his life after Cistercian. Alumni were still interested in the school, its faculty and its programs, and they wanted to keep up with the lives of their fellow alums. Every student was marked forever by the people they knew at Cistercian.
Today, the need for connection has grown. We want to connect the school’s current families and students with Cistercian students who have already graduated and their families. Likewise, we want alumni to maintain ties, not only with their former teachers and classmates, but also with the new generation of devoted Cistercian faculty and students.
As with all relationships, we must work at preserving and building the bond. We can lose touch with even our dearest friends when we no longer share activities, interests, concerns, and goals. Alumni go to their various colleges, pursue their chosen degrees and professions, and raise their own families. Families once so close because they chaperoned a party together after a football game or cheered the Hawks on during a basketball game can find themselves searching for the occasion to keep friendships going once their sons graduate from Cistercian. The Continuum, we hope, will be one such ‘occasion’ for the entire Cistercian family.
Visit the Continuum Archives to read more.
Reflections
Cistercian’s award-winning literary magazine is produced by a club of students who are passionate about creative expression. This extra-curricular group meets twice a week to gather creative projects from the entire school—from the imaginative tales and drawings of Middle Schoolers to the sophisticated poetry and artwork of upperclassmen. Our tradition is to encourage every student to submit work for publication in Reflections, and every student gets a copy of the printed magazine in August. This year, however, we’re starting a new tradition: posting a digital copy of the magazine online.
For our graduating seniors who might otherwise miss seeing their literary or artistic talents showcased, and for any student who may want to share a published story with distant relatives, we hope you enjoy this online version of Reflections.
A Word to Enkindle
Spiritual direction from God
"Spiritual direction from God" by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. Someone left copies of “Abandonment to Divine Providence” by Jean-Pierre de Caussade in the monastery one day. The edition is a paperback from Dynamic Catholic, a company that tries to make great...
The graced adventure of simplicity
"The graced adventure of simplicity" by Fr. Thomas for Texas Catholic. The future is not simply an adventure; it’s the adventure, according to the Latin roots ad, “to, toward” and ventura, “what will come.” While many students eagerly anticipate the start of a new...
Read this book on racial reconciliation
"Read this book on racial reconciliation" by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. For a while, I have been studying the topic of race in American and Catholic history. It is a difficult topic for obvious reasons, but it is also a rewarding one. In fact, I have been...
Mortality and weakness: A Father’s Day meditation
This is not a typical celebratory Father’s Day meditation; no Hallmark card will feature such apparently dour reminders to Dads of their limitations, weaknesses, and mortality. But the privileges and challenges of imitating both St. Joseph and the eternal Father of Jesus Christ make fatherhood an awe-inspiring vocation.
Listening at the Dallas Synod
"Listening at the Dallas Synod" by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. Plans are well underway for the 2024 Synod — that big meeting to advise the bishop about the spiritual, material and administrative situation of the Dallas Diocese. Essential to its success are the...
Mary, mother of every beloved disciple
"Mary, mother of every beloved disciple" by Fr. Thomas for Texas Catholic. Mary is never named in the Gospel of John. In the only scenes featuring her, the beloved disciple refers to her simply as “the mother of Jesus.” Those two episodes act as bookends to John’s...
Faith in Medicine
"Faith in Medicine" by Fr. John for The Texas Catholic. Our world needs Christian faith. A book that proved this to me regarding the medical field is Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality by Charles C. Camosy. After a...
The plea of an atheist for biblical beauty
The Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980, declared in a book of prose that “the Scriptures constitute the common good of believers, agnostics, and atheists.” For Milosz, whose life was scarred by the Nazi and Communist takeovers of his native land, the moral authority and literary beauty of the Bible was a refuge against the lethal and banal propaganda spewed forth from those godless governments and armies, even though he could not bring himself to believe in God.
Wilderness and the Dynamics of Conversion
This Lent I’m studying the “wilderness” or “desert” in Scripture, and especially in the journey of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. The dangerous wild is a powerful image for the spiritual life, and it plays a large part in the lives of figures like Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus. What about in yours?
Exile and home in the human condition
A curious pattern of exile is evident in the endings of several Old Testament books. After God promises Abram the land of Canaan, the patriarch must immediately flee to Egypt because of a famine (Genesis 12); his descendants, the sons of Jacob, repeat the expedition for the same reason (Genesis 42-47). The final word of Genesis, “Egypt,” ominously foreshadows the drama of slavery and liberation narrated in the second biblical book. The conclusion of Deuteronomy features Moses dying before he can lead the Israelites across the Jordan River (Deuteronomy 34:1-12). The Pentateuch, therefore, finishes with the Israelites, having sojourned for 40 years as the entire generation who left Egypt perishes in the wilderness, outside the land.